


Jackie and Donna Get Covered in Engine Grease

by periwinklepromise



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: 01x18, Canon Divergence, Canon Quotations, Career Day, F/F, FIx It, First Kiss, Gen, Getting Together, Jackie as a Grease Monkey, One Shot, Show Quotations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 07:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14665776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/periwinklepromise/pseuds/periwinklepromise
Summary: After Red teaches Jackie about cars on Career Day, Jackie finds the confidence to talk to Donna.Alternate title: Get Yourself a Firebird





	Jackie and Donna Get Covered in Engine Grease

**Author's Note:**

> A great deal of dialogue is taken from the show. Original dialogue is present near the end of the work.

Donna was sitting on the couch, reading some dumb magazine, wearing that ugly denim shirt over that pretty red turtleneck that never clashed with her pretty red hair.

Not that Jackie would ever admit she thought Donna's hair was pretty, of course. Besides, her own hair was much prettier. She'd styled it down today, but she kept her hair out of her face so that she could read her Nancy Drew easier.

Kitty popped down the stairs with cookies, and Jackie hopped off the freezer to grab one … then put it back when Kitty mentioned carob. Nature's chocolate? Who would ever fall for that? She moved to be near Michael, wanting a better look at Donna's face. But he put her arm around her, so she moved to stand behind him.

She'd been quiet too long. “Your mom is Gross Edna? Ew!” she squeaked at Hyde. Then she made her eyes go a little wide. “... I mean, cool!” She gave him an OK sign and a wink.

Being at the Forman's today was a dumb idea. She said her goodbyes, and Donna didn't look up, and she left.

*

The next day, Jackie was so, unbelievably bored. There wasn't any school for Career Day, and she'd already finished her homework the night before. 

She had put together a super cute outfit that was definitely **not** inspired by Donna's weird layering the day before – her bright blue turtleneck, her great multi-pattern sweater that was all blue and cream and burnt orange over it, with a deep clay red puffy coat on top. The purse for the outfit was blue and beige, tying the whole look together. She'd been doing bright red lipstick the last few days and saw no reason to stop soon. The biggest problem was that she had nowhere to go, since all of Michael's friends and all of her cheerleading buddies were busy on Career Day.

With nothing better to do, she decided to walk around town. Maybe somebody would see her and call her cute!

As she cut through the Forman's garage, she ran into Red.

“Oh, hey, Mr. Forman! What are you doing home?” He looked up at her as she recalled sadly, “That's right, you're only working part-time.” He didn't look too happy to be reminded, so she covered quickly, “If! It makes you feel any better, my father feels really, really sorry for you.” She put her hand on her chest and nodded very sympathetically.

Red straightened up. In true Red Forman fashion, he was wearing a gray sweatshirt and a blue puffy vest over. It was pathetic, really, how even Red dressed better than Eric.

“Aren't you supposed to be at Career Day?”

“No, I'm a sophomore,” Jackie corrected him. Then she gasped. “I'm surprised you didn't know that about me.”

Red looked a little confused, as if he didn't know what to do with her. “Right,” he said hesitantly. “My mistake. Listen, while you're here, would you hold this flashlight on that carburetor there?” He handed her the flashlight and moved to the other side of the Vista Cruiser.

She set her purse down near the tire and turned on the light. “Like this?” She asked, trying it out. It seemed like the whole hood was illuminated, and Red looked at her completely awestruck. She tried to hide a smile at his reaction.

“My God!” Red exclaimed. “One of you's not useless!”

Jackie perked her eyebrows up. Of course, what did he really expect?

*

She held the flashlight while Red fixed the carburetor, teaching as he went. When she admitted she didn't know to change a tire, he insisted on showing her. First he did it on his own, telling her what he was doing, answering her questions. She took off her coat while she watched. Then he had her do it by herself, while he stood to the side and encouraged her. When she finally finished tightening on the new tire, she threw down the tire iron and jumped into Red's arms, squealing. He hugged her back, smiling big like he smiled for Laurie.

“I can't believe I changed a tire!” She gasped in excitement. “I feel like Nancy Drew!” Jackie grabbed at a spare rag to wipe off her hands.

“Well, a girl needs to know what to do in an emergency,” he explained as he walked over to her at the front of the Vista Cruiser. They both rested against the bumper. “I'm surprised your father hasn't taught you this already.”

“Yeah, well,” she pouted, considering. “Daddy works really hard, so he doesn't spend a lot of time with me.” She'd been having so much fun with Red, and for one brief spark of a moment, she wished that Red was her dad, or that at least her father was more like Mr. Forman. Then she jumped up, remembering something important, pointing a finger at him. “But! He did promise me a Mustang for my birthday. So! I love him.” She sat back down, happy that the matter was settled. She folded her arms. She noticed Red folded his arms too.

“You know, Jackie,” he said heavily. “I've been a father a long time. So trust me when I tell you this.” He paused then, and she held her breath in fear he would say something mean, and well, Red-like. He rushed through the rest. “The Mustang's front end is problematic, get yourself a Firebird.”

A _Firebird_.

Her mind jumped to Donna with her fiery hair. She blushed, while still smiling at Red. God, imagine if he knew how she felt about his skinny little son's girlfriend.

*

Later, he showed her how to use a jack to raise up the car, and brought out a cute little rolling board so she could slip under and look around. She pushed up her sleeves to get to work. He told her to find a U joint, and then he sat down to clean some pieces of metal. He'd given her the names, but she'd already forgotten.

Jackie used her hands to follow along the little pipes, resting her wrench on her stomach. She heard what was probably Hyde clomp in, and heard him complain about Gross Edna. It was seriously so gross that she hung out with Gross Edna's son. It was seriously so gross that Gross Edna even _had_ a son.

And then... Red was talking about self-esteem and criticism and shame. Jackie blushed. She understood what that meant well enough. Jackie knew she was the best thing to grace the town of Point Place, but that didn't make it easier to be criticized. Sometimes, she would see other girls, how pretty they were, and she wouldn't even get jealous or bitchy, she would just get happy and warm. She shook her head, and shouted out to the guys, “Okay!” She rolled herself out from under the Vista Cruiser, and pushed her safety goggles up to her hair. She sat up a little and gestured with her wrench and red-orange rag at Red. “I'm not sure, but I think I've found the U joint.”

Red nodded happily at her. “God bless you, Jackie.”

She nodded back. It was nice to feel appreciated for what she could do, not just how she could look. Though of course, she did always look great. She moved the goggles back down over her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay. I'm going back in.” Invigorated, she rolled back in.

*

All in all, it was a great day, and she learned tons of stuff about cars. She really did feel like Nancy Drew. Red brought her back to the dining room where they washed their hands and made big sandwiches, and he prepared a big bowl of potato chips while she grabbed his beer and a Coke for herself. She sat to his left, and kept the dirty goggles on to keep her hair back. Her curls had lost some definition during the day, and she had grease over half her face, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Red certainly didn't. She liked how quiet he could be.

Donna could be quiet like that too.

Then Eric, scrawny-girl-stealer himself, walked in. “Hey, Dad. Hey, um... Jackie,” he added in surprise.

“Eric,” Red greeted him. Jackie turned back to her food; she was starving from all the work she'd put in today. Then she heard her name, “Jackie's gonna teach you how to hold a flashlight.” She would have smirked, had her mouth not been full, and she took a second to wipe off her hands.

“Jackie?” Eric asked, still in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Red confirmed. “I finally found one of your friends I like.”

She could've beamed at that, but then Eric had to run his mouth.

“Well, Jackie's not really one of my friends,” he tried to say.

She spun in her chair. She put down her sandwich. She stared him down for all she was worth. “That's one,” she said, a threat. Then she turned back to her dinner.

Red smiled and did the same. “That's how you do that,” he approved.

Eric looked confused and finally backed away to the basement door.

Jackie rolled her eyes at Red, and he nodded again. “Don't understand how you raised a boy like _Eric_ ,” she admitted.

“I don't understand it either, kid.”

She finished off her sandwich and Coke and then stood up sadly. “I had a really great time, Mr. Forman.”

He toasted her with his beer. “You be safe walking home, Jackie.”

She went out the side door and went back to the garage, leaving the goggles on a side table. She stopped at the Vista Cruiser, absently petting it. She'd seen so much of this car now, far more than just the ceiling from laying down on the backseat.

“Whoa. What happened to you?”

She blushed and spun around. “Oh, hey Donna.” Jackie brushed a hand through her hair and giggled at herself. “Yeah, I helped Red on the Vista Cruiser today. It was pretty fun.”

“Pretty fun?” Donna repeated, still looking confused. “You look like a wreck.”

Jackie couldn't stop herself from pouting. Donna never cared when she dressed up for her, but now that she was frazzled and covered in grease, Donna felt the need to comment on her appearance. “Yeah, well,” she blustered. “You look like a lumberjack.” She straightened up and patted at her jeans. “I don't know, it was kinda nice, learning how to do stuff with my hands.” She looked down at her hands, mostly clean. She checked her nails, which were still in pretty good condition, all things considered. “Besides! Red and I bonded over how gross his scrawny little son is.”

“Hey, I'm dating his scrawny little son,” Donna reminded her.

She let out a single laugh. “But not because you want to be.” Oh, no. She should not have said that.

Donna … blushed? Did that mean she was right? “What's that supposed to mean?” she said, a beat too late to be natural.

Jackie took a deep breath and decided to go for it. Maybe all the monkey grease was making her bold, or maybe it was the way Red talked about nurturing and healing earlier, but she had to do it now. “It means you look at Eric like I look at Michael.”

“Yeah, so? You're always saying how totally in love you are with Kelso.”

She shrugged. Maybe this was a bad idea.

Donna seemed uncomfortable. “You … are in love with Kelso … right?”

She shrugged again. Accusing Donna was one thing, admitting she was doing it too was another.

“Jackie!” Donna whined.  


“I don't know!” she exploded. “I don't know, okay? It's easy and it's fun, and I really like getting to hang out with all of you, but Michael... he's just so dumb!” She complained, “He doesn't know what his own father does at work.”

“Yeah, I know, he was writing about milking chickens when I left,” Donna laughed.

Jackie groaned, wiping at her face.

Donna grabbed her hand, and a piece of Jackie's heart froze, but her blood kept moving. “Wait,” Donna explained, “you're gonna get your hands all greasy again.”

“I like my hands all greasy,” she flirted. An evil thought came to her, and Donna seemed to notice an evil look in her eye. Quickly, she smeared her cheek against Donna's, getting engine grease on her face.

Donna squawked out her name, flapping at her face, but she was laughing and looking at Jackie like she was everything.

Jackie grabbed Donna's dirty face with her clean hands, and gave her just one second to pull away if she wanted to. Then she pressed her mostly clean lips to hers.

Donna responded immediately, with pressure and then a bit of heat, and then a touch of moisture. Their lips parted, and their tongues met, and oh God, this was perfect, and Donna's lips were so soft and warm, and Jackie could smell the grease everywhere, but that just made the kiss even more perfect, having it happen where she'd been so successful all day, working on the U joint of the Vista Cruiser in the Forman's garage...

The Forman's garage! She sprung back with a gasp. “We shouldn't do this here,” she hurriedly explained, looking over her shoulder to make sure they hadn't been caught.

“Right,” Donna agreed, looking a little lost. Then she gathered her breath. “My place?” she offered.

Jackie nodded.

And then she smirked. “Lead the way … Firebird.”


End file.
